RUB as we know it has probably been the most defining deck in the history of TCG Duel Masters. This decktype has gone through much evolution over the years but it probably is still one of the, if not the most consistent Duel Masters deck in the TCG no Bombazar metagame. Many thanks go to @diffindo for being my fellow mastermind in building and optimising RUB and being its most ardent supporter.

I placed 3rd in a tournament hosted by @Promised. on 23rd December 2017 with a 46 card variant of this deck playing 1 less Illusionary Merfolk and 1 less Crystal Memory, only dropping 2 sets, the first against Hydro Hurricane WLD Control and the second against FWN Aggro in the semi-finals. I worked on this build extensively with @diffindo and we have since made a number of modifications to this build specifically adjusted for the Singapore metagame which we play in. This build however provides a skeleton build for RUB which we feel is useful as a community resource for other duelists who might want a sample deck list. (This is not the list used in the video on @Promised Youtube Channel)

RUB at its core is a deck based around protecting Bolmeteus Steel Dragon, the best finisher in the game. The 3 Civilizations of RUB do this. Fire provides the finisher and the kill spells to maintain field control, Water provides consistency with its draw, Darkness provides the ability to maintain hand control through discard.

First, we have the Fire section. Bolmeteus Steel Dragon is the finisher of this deck, the primary win condition. The traditional way of playing has it normally touch field after you have discarded the opponent of potential answers and they are stuck in topdecking mode. However, I believe a more modern RUB build does not necessitate solely relying on Bolmeteus to finish games. While you normally want to be mostly only attacking with Bolmeteus against an opposing control build, there might not be enough time to do so against an aggro build. Running 2x Bolmeteus has always been the optimal number for me. Running more than 1 allows you to still be able to tutor out the other copy by drawing or Memory if it happens to be in the shields. However a 3rd copy I find tends to clog the hand so I would not recommend running more than 2.

Bazagazeal Dragon is another important card in this deck, functioning as the Primary win condition against a non-discarding aggro by locking the opponent’s field while discarding the hand. The Baza lock buys time to get more bodies on the field to finish safely or to drop Bolmeteus. You definitely want to see at least 1 copy per game late game to lock down the field. For the same reason as Bolmeteus, I tend to run 2 in a deck. Some decks opt to run Valiant Warrior Exorius in the slot for field control. I dislike running Valiant Warrior as it gets too easily removed when trying to lock an opponent down, is too slow and doesn’t trade favourably with some huge threats to this deck like Twin Cannon in RUG and Craze Valkyrie from LWN Aggro.

Apocalypse Vise is probably the best mass kill spell in the game, being the most flexible with the least drawbacks. It tends to not be run in more than 2 copies due to the high mana cost. There are alternative mass kill spells such as Blizzard of Spears, Mechadragon’s Breath and Searing Wave, each with their pros and cons and can be ran alongside Apoc in different metagames. I dislike Blizzard due to it killing your own weeny creatures but definitely it is a valid card for dealing with Tajimal. Mechadragon’s Breath has the niche of killing Petrova and being pretty flexible. Searing Wave is excellent in more aggro metas as it has the lowest mana cost and indiscriminately hits most of aggros field at the rather paltry cost of a single shield.

Volcano Charger kills a creature + ramps one, having more than one use makes it a very useful removal that should definitely be played. The most important function this card is aiding in reaching the crucial 7 or 8 mana turn to drop Lost Soul, Apocalypse Vise and other big bombs in the deck. Alternative smaller spot kill spells such as PDF and Ten-ton can be played for alternative reasons such as shield trigger or ability to deal with larger creatures. that RUB’s weenies do not trade favourably with. Different spot kill cards should be chosen based on meta.

Next, the Water Section

3 Aqua Hulcus and 3 Energy Stream is the all-around most balanced draw you can get for your deck. Pretty much staple turn 3s you see in every deck with water. 3x Aqua Surfers is ran as it probably is the best trigger you can hope for against rush.

2x Emeral is ran to set down one of the many triggers in the deck against aggressive decks. It also serves to cycle out cards in the mid to late game. Furthermore it is a Cyber Lord which is relevant for Merfolk.

3x Corile is an important key to how this deck functions. Corile is an inherently broken card that essentially buys a free turn and is especially deadly after opponent’s hand has been discarded. It’s a fantastic bouncing option that every good duelist knows the power of. The 4th copy tends to clog hand by experience so I run 3.

2x Merfolk is a natural addition and partner to 5 cyberlords as a draw engine that also doubles as a relatively large body in mid to late game.

Thrash Crawler is a useful option that one copy of can be played in most decks to retrieve something important in the mana zone. Search it out with Memory if you need it. More thrash crawlers can be played if you choose to use corpse charger as the main way of taking something back from the graveyard.

2x Crystal Memory is probably the glue for this deck together. Searching gives access to the key cards that are ran in 2s or 3s even 1s that are needed in a particular situation. It also has the effect of allowing for a competent player to check what cards are in his shields and hence form a solid game plan. After the tournament I placed 3rd I realised the additional memory only made the deck more consistent and left it as such.

Now for the Darkness Section, what I term the “standard discard package is used”, consisting of 4x Locomotivers 2x Cranium Clamps and 2x Lost Soul. Locomotiver I run at maximum number of copies because it is a shield trigger. The importance of it should not be underrated even though it does not provide a hard stop that other triggers such as Awe and Pit provide. Against rush, discarding a card and having a body that trades against Deadly Fighter are especially important in stabilising.

Cranium Clamp is a fantastic card, don’t get me wrong but I believe that caution should be exercised when casting this spell. In Singapore, practically half the decks run handguards, most prominently Arque. Say the opposing deck regardless of whether it is control or aggro has went through a progression of 2 drop e.g. Emeral, Gonta, Quixotic Hero>> Aqua Hulcus. If the RUB player blindly clamps into an Arque on T4 without having a blocker or a Corile in hand, they are in a rather shitty position where they have to pray to have either Pit or Surfer in shields – not the most reliable of way of winning. Against opposing players, up to 4 shields can be potentially lost and depending on the board state, might be improbable to remove all of the creatures on the opponents fields in the next turn. I have lost many games to clamping an Arque on T4. For the purpose of this deck, if you have Loco and Clamp as your only 4 drops, playing the Loco on T4 might be a superior play to Clamp if you know the opposing deck runs Arque. The chance of instantly rolling over and dying to aggro is significantly less while gaining some mileage out of the turn. I believe 2 to be the right number as the deck does not have the pressing need to cast in on T4 unlike in the past.

2x Lost Soul rounds off the discard package. Lost Soul is the deadliest card against opposing control, the card you most definitely want to play against them. It is not uncommon to cast chargers in order to have the mana advantage to hit Lost Soul which probably wins half the against opposing control. Great card, but I would only run 2 LS as there are ways of tutoring out by T7 such as draw or memory. The 3rd copy also tends to clog hand.

2x Bloody Squito is the best 2 drop blocker that trades with Gonta, Pyro and a large number of cards. Blocking the crucial 3k and 4k that are larger than RUB’s relatively smaller 1 and 2k bodies is a very useful ability to have. More should be ran in a more aggressive metagame.

4x Terror Pit. It’s the best single target removal in the game and no other card in the TCG metagame does the same thing it does. Personally I always run 4 copies of this as this card is without equal in TCG.

1x Morbid Medicine. Recursion from grave is normally not something that is needed in most games. It is nice to be able to pull Baza/Bolmeteus from the grave if they have been discarded/pitted. I find that running a second copy is really dead draw early game and always goes into mana early. One copy is sufficient as it can also be searched out through memory. Some might favour Corpse chargers in this slot but morbid taking back 2 creatures is in my opinion a lot more flexible.

For Rainbow cards, 1x Miraculous Meltdown. I believe that this card is absolutely necessary in decks as the anti rush/aggro tool. Meltdown is probably the strongest win condition against those sort of decks. The best part is that with memory that can be potentially a shield trigger to search Meltdown into hand can turn the tables swiftly against rush if RUB manages to put a few bodies on the field.

Lastly, a more controversial section, the 2x Terradragons I run in this deck even though there is no Nature. Terradragon Arque Delacerna single-handedly changed Singapore’s metagame, making players question and think as they can no longer discard without impunity. Even without nature and the fact that Arque is dead draw against any deck without discard, the presence of Arque gives significant mileage against opposing Dark decks. Players are more hesitant about randomly Clamping and from personal experience my heart stops everytime I attempt to Loco my opponent’s hand. This deck can even utilise Arque by aggroing down with it if there are 2-3 bodies on the board instead of just waiting for Bolmeteus. Arque is a fantastic card that while might seem strange, has been splashed in many Singapore for the sole purpose of guarding against discard.

Perhaps an interesting note is that my deck runs only Locomotiver and Terror Pit at 4 copies. There are diminishing marginal returns in the additional copies of some cards that I find through play testing but these 2 copies retain value as a card that you hard cast a lot in addition to being a shield trigger. One might ask why Aqua Surfer is not maxed as it too has 2 effects, bouncing and being a shield trigger. The answer is that Aqua Surfer is always inferior to Corile in the hard cast scenario and only has significant value as a shield trigger.

Older players might question why there is no mention of Deklowaz/Tanzanyte in the deck. Pulling off the Corile Lock with both of these cards used to be one of the key combos that RUB can pull off. I find that usage of these cards makes decks top heavy and bad in the Singapore metagame. RUB in Singapore appreciates the use of ETB creatures that do not sink momentum. However I acknowledge in slower metagames where hard control is common, DekTan might still be king in locking down opposing decks.

@Altina wrote:RUB at its core is a deck based around protecting Bolmeteus Steel Dragon, the best finisher in the game.

You can create a competitive RUB without Bolmeteus. But you cannot create a competitive RUB without Corile & Clamp. RUB is about setting your opponent 3 turns behind.

Setting your opponent 3 turns behind? Then what, you deck him out afterwards by tapping deklowaz for 15 turns together with the baza lock? Realistically speaking you have to/can finish the game before that. Clamp and corile are the cards that enable Bolmeteus to finish. Yes I agree, corile and clamp taken in isolation are objectively better cards than Bolmeteus, by far. But we’re talking about the core deck idea.

In other words, just because you can build a ‘competitive RUB without Bolmeteus’ changes nothing. What @altina was talking about was ‘traditional’ RUB and its core idea. Yes, no RUB (traditional or not) can run without clamp and corile. But that’s a completely different point, isn’t it?

Taking your argument literally, one could say that UB control or phal control or any other deck that generates card advantage (and perhaps tempo in terms of setting opponent back by turns) could be called RUB because they ‘can’t run without corile and clamp’.

Tldr, two issues here:

1. You’re comparing apples and oranges - staple card-advantage generating cards, with the choice of finisher. Obviously, there’s no replacement for the former while the latter depends on the core deck idea. And therefore, more importantly, the next point follows;2. @altina was talking about the core deck idea (insofar as we’re talking about traditional RUB), not ‘what card is the objectively best or most powerful card in a vacuum’, or ‘what cards RUB can’t work without’.

I like the description of the deck, Altina. It is clear that you know your stuff. Having your RUB at 45 is very ballanced. Here in Romania in our metagame, we usualy play all TCG decks in 40 cards. I took this habit from when I played in Kaijudo Portal. Usualy when I build decks, I project the strategy in 40 cards. But in the last time, I started to accommodate bulding control decks in >40 cards. (because beatdown decks always works at their best in 40 cards, from my experience).My decks speciality are controls, I always loved them, especialy RUB control. I won one of our Romanian tournaments using a 40 deck RUB. And ya, RUB is a deck that disrupt opponent resources and then uses the finisher to win the game, also is the control with the best versatility and that makes it a fiersome tier 1 deck. Playing a RUB without Bolmy is like making soup without salt, even if you use Clamp>Corile. I personaly didn't like clamp very much, because now the handguards are use in our meta to. I like that you maximize Loco and Pit, they are probably the only cards that should be at 4.(I used to play in some versions even Hulcus at 4).Overall I like your build, though you can try some adjustments:

+1 Bolmy. Probably in your meta playing Bolmy at 2 is ok. But from experience I believe 3 copies are always the best number. Ofc , you have Crystal(and I realy like that you use Crystal, it realy gives you the cards you need), but you only have 1 Morbid and 1 Thrash. If Morbid get discarded, you can't recycle your creatures. You could have problems against other strong-discarding controls, especialy vs a mirror deck. But anyways, it's just an opinion. - I don't know the Singapore meta, but I highly recomand to use Blizard. It's the generaly accepted the best card vs strong Aggro's. Even if you kill your weenies, against non-discarding Aggro's, it's ok. You'll probably win the game with Bolmy in almost all this type of duels. In a field with Gonta, Magris, Lukia Lex and Taji, Blizzard put your opp to sleep.(also it kills all Petrovas)

Overall a very well-balanced deck. I also like that you use morbid over corpse, cause you don't play a heavy spell version of the deck(in wich case you'd run corpse, because the number of spells is higher then the number of creatures). It is clearly that you have work at this deck to bring it at this point.

Sweet take on this. Weirdly enough, Bolmeteus was never the primary win condition when we put the central idea together. At the time, he wasn't released. Bazagazeal and a series of smaller creatures (Meteosaur --> Doboulgeyser) did the job. Some players started to use it because of that "cruise control" game win you get from discard, but it became easier to bounce/mess with Bolly over more sets.

I personally used 1x with Velyrika Dragon to tutor him -- at first, I'd grab another Velyrika and keep doing this until the board itself was pretty dangerous. It also baits a lot of their topdecked removal out, since he's just as big. If something happened to Bolly or it was locked in a shield, I'd grab Baza and swing in with everybody.

Wondering how you like Mechadragon's Breath over Blizzard of Spears? I tended to need that for Petrova / LWD matchups.

Arque is a good addition considering how the TCG ended up. Would love to try that.

@Tom Rogers wrote:Sweet take on this. Weirdly enough, Bolmeteus was never the primary win condition when we put the central idea together. At the time, he wasn't released. Bazagazeal and a series of smaller creatures (Meteosaur --> Doboulgeyser) did the job. Some players started to use it because of that "cruise control" game win you get from discard, but it became easier to bounce/mess with Bolly over more sets.

I personally used 1x with Velyrika Dragon to tutor him -- at first, I'd grab another Velyrika and keep doing this until the board itself was pretty dangerous. It also baits a lot of their topdecked removal out, since he's just as big. If something happened to Bolly or it was locked in a shield, I'd grab Baza and swing in with everybody.

Wondering how you like Mechadragon's Breath over Blizzard of Spears? I tended to need that for Petrova / LWD matchups.

Arque is a good addition considering how the TCG ended up. Would love to try that.

Hi @Tom Rogers, thank you for your comment. I will not ever compromise on playing 2x Bolmeteus Steel Dragons and 2x Bazagazeal Dragons. However, I think that a single Velyrika is a superior card to a 3rd Baza or a 3rd Bolly.

In comparison to Bolmeteus. Normally when your finisher hits the board, you probably have control and in an advantageous position, maybe already forced the opponent into topdecking for answers. Do you really want to waste a turn when you could have gotten more value by summoning a Bolly over Velyrika?

In comparison to Bazagazeal Dragon, normally when you really want to draw it there is a big threat that is on the field that u want to kill. Again, waste a turn tutoring out Baza and not be able to deal with the immediate threat until the next turn or be able to draw into your answer more consistently?

Hence, I believe that running 2/2 Bolly/Baza is a superior option to 2/1/1 Vely/Bolly/Baza

Mechadragon's Breath kills Petrova that is protected by Pala Olesis and kills 2x Pala Olesis. The addition of Mechadragon's breath gives an additional option to fight against Hydro Hurricane which is a rather important matchup in my metagame. Also it somewhat acts as a mass kill spell against aggro though it most of the time is an inferior Searing Wave in that matchup. The ability to better deal with threats in Hydro outweighs the negatives of it being a less useful card in the aggro matchup in my opinion.

I dislike Blizzard of Spears as a card in this sort of weenie RUB builds. In RUB the small bodies are threats when in sufficient numbers. For aggro builds that utilise Petrova, i.e. LWN aggro a primary win condition is casting Miraculous Meltdown which has been either drawn from shields or tutored with memory when you have 0 shields. Yes, Blizzard can clear the board of all the threats for that one turn, but casting it reduces the number of bodies that can potentially swing for game so it is counterintuitive to run it for this matchup.

If Blizzards purpose is only to deal with Petrova in aggro, Mechadragon does the same thing for the same cost with less drawback. If you are using it to deal with Petrova in control, I find Mechadragon a superior card.

@Tom Rogers wrote:Sweet take on this. Weirdly enough, Bolmeteus was never the primary win condition when we put the central idea together. At the time, he wasn't released. Bazagazeal and a series of smaller creatures (Meteosaur --> Doboulgeyser) did the job. Some players started to use it because of that "cruise control" game win you get from discard, but it became easier to bounce/mess with Bolly over more sets.

I personally used 1x with Velyrika Dragon to tutor him -- at first, I'd grab another Velyrika and keep doing this until the board itself was pretty dangerous. It also baits a lot of their topdecked removal out, since he's just as big. If something happened to Bolly or it was locked in a shield, I'd grab Baza and swing in with everybody.

Wondering how you like Mechadragon's Breath over Blizzard of Spears? I tended to need that for Petrova / LWD matchups.

Arque is a good addition considering how the TCG ended up. Would love to try that.

Hi @Tom Rogers, thank you for your comment. I will not ever compromise on playing 2x Bolmeteus Steel Dragons and 2x Bazagazeal Dragons. However, I think that a single Velyrika is a superior card to a 3rd Baza or a 3rd Bolly.

In comparison to Bolmeteus. Normally when your finisher hits the board, you probably have control and in an advantageous position, maybe already forced the opponent into topdecking for answers. Do you really want to waste a turn when you could have gotten more value by summoning a Bolly over Velyrika?

In comparison to Bazagazeal Dragon, normally when you really want to draw it there is a big threat that is on the field that u want to kill. Again, waste a turn tutoring out Baza and not be able to deal with the immediate threat until the next turn or be able to draw into your answer more consistently?

Hence, I believe that running 2/2 Bolly/Baza is a superior option to 2/1/1 Vely/Bolly/Baza

Mechadragon's Breath kills Petrova that is protected by Pala Olesis and kills 2x Pala Olesis. The addition of Mechadragon's breath gives an additional option to fight against Hydro Hurricane which is a rather important matchup in my metagame. Also it somewhat acts as a mass kill spell against aggro though it most of the time is an inferior Searing Wave in that matchup. The ability to better deal with threats in Hydro outweighs the negatives of it being a less useful card in the aggro matchup in my opinion.

I dislike Blizzard of Spears as a card in this sort of weenie RUB builds. In RUB the small bodies are threats when in sufficient numbers. For aggro builds that utilise Petrova, i.e. LWN aggro a primary win condition is casting Miraculous Meltdown which has been either drawn from shields or tutored with memory when you have 0 shields. Yes, Blizzard can clear the board of all the threats for that one turn, but casting it reduces the number of bodies that can potentially swing for game so it is counterintuitive to run it for this matchup.

If Blizzards purpose is only to deal with Petrova in aggro, Mechadragon does the same thing for the same cost with less drawback. If you are using it to deal with Petrova in control, I find Mechadragon a superior card.

Fair enough. I never thought of it that way

I was partial to Blizzard because it still sweeps the board (but I guess you keep Vise for that). It also combos well off Tanzanyte, when being included in the deck.